


Screech

by TheFoolsYouSee



Series: After Blood And Souls [4]
Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Horror, Young Eda, young Lilith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 08:56:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26849290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFoolsYouSee/pseuds/TheFoolsYouSee
Summary: As a teenager, Eda poured her pain and anger at her curse into a dark creation. And now, just when she's lost her magic, her creation has returned.
Series: After Blood And Souls [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1967302
Comments: 31
Kudos: 96





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?"  
> \- Dr Romero, Spy Kids 2.

Lilith walked briskly along the woodland path that led back home from school, her mass of red hair swaying quickly from side to side in time with her gait. She was used to making this journey more slowly; Edalyn would want to stroll casually and investigate reptiles and weird mushrooms that she spotted along the way. But Lilith no longer had her sister to walk home with. The teenaged witchling clutched the small pouch in her hand tighter as she remembered the days that had immediately followed their duel for acceptance into the Emperor’s Coven. She had secured her place, and now needed only to complete the formality of the final semester at Hexside and be awarded with her staff. Eda, however…

Lilith slowed to a stop. She had been trying to keep what she’d done out of her mind as much as she could, but right now she had nothing to distract herself with. After putting the curse on her sister, she had burned the parchment containing it that same night to hide any evidence of her act. But once it became apparent that the curse was permanent, she had gone back to the pile of ashes and desperately clawed through them, trying to piece together any scrap that might give a clue as to a cure. Having no luck, she had gone back to the night market, but the stall it had come from was gone, the owner having moved on to some other town on the Isles. That’s when she had felt the first shivers of a panic that felt like it would burn her up just like the parchment, and had firmly pushed it down. She couldn’t break now. Not when the Emperor was ready to welcome her into his ranks.

Eda hadn’t realised at first that extending her magic was the thing triggering the transformations, and there was no way Lilith could have told her without raising suspicion. The best anyone else could figure, the girl had been cursed by someone who’d bet a lot of money on the outcome of the duel, but Eda was far more preoccupied with the consequences than the cause. The next time she transformed after the duel was in the middle of a class, and Principal Bump himself had to subdue the winged beast as she thrashed around the classroom, scared and confused. The other students who hadn’t been lucky enough to secure a placement like Lilith’s were trying to focus on their crucial final exams, and it didn’t help that even between transformations Eda was taking out her frustrations with more and more destructive behaviour. The last straw had been an argument that had made the girl’s fingers burst into talons as she swiped a confiscated item back, and accidentally made a deep gash in the teacher’s arm. Although her talent had moved her up to the final year, she would now not be allowed to finish her final semester at Hexside and would not receive her staff.

Lilith realised she’d been stood in the middle of the path for a few minutes and shook herself. Nothing further could be done to rectify her mistake, and there was no point in dwelling on things that couldn’t be fixed; soon she would be far away from the consequences of her actions. The red-haired girl continued on her way.

When she’d gotten home, Lilith paused again on the stairs that led up to her sister’s room, opening the pouch and pulling out the small, wooden figurine inside. Their mother had recently caught Eda sketching a self-portrait of the owl-beast, and had forbidden her from dwelling on such things. An elixir had been found to manage the condition, so there was no further need to acknowledge it. Lilith had seen the pain in her sister’s eyes at another rejection of the monster that was nonetheless now a part of her, and when the older witchling had spotted the owl figure for sale as she walked through the market she had felt it would make a nice parting gift. Their parents wouldn’t take away a keepsake from her sibling who had just moved away; it could be a little release for her. Lilith replaced the figure in the pouch, continued up the stairs, and knocked on the bedroom door.

‘Edalyn?’

There was no reply, but Lilith could hear movement inside so she turned the handle and went in.

Eda was knelt on the floor with her back to the door, her own red hair a shade closer to gold and shaped like a billowing flame. She was hunched over, drawing on one of the many sheets of paper that littered the floor; the walls were covered with her sketches, pasted over the posters that had once been her chosen decoration. Each one was of an owl, or a beast, or of some amalgamation of the two. Lilith gave a small shake of her head. She’d been foolish to assume that Eda would do as she was told. Her eyes fell on a pile of debris in the corner, and recognised the smashed pieces of the Grudgby trophy that had once been proudly displayed on a shelf. She felt a pang of sympathy for how it must feel to be the star player who had won the school many victories, only to be expelled and discarded.

‘I got you something,’ Lilith said. ‘I thought it could remind you of me after I leave.’

There was no reaction from the other girl; she just kept on scribbling.

‘…Maybe you could come and see the castle sometime. If you behave yourself.’

Eda nodded, but didn’t seem to acknowledge the joke. Lilith tried not to look at the picture she was drawing; some of the images around the room were so disturbing that she was starting to feel nauseous.

‘Yeah,’ the younger girl finally responded. ‘Once I get a staff I can fly over to see you.’

Lilith sighed, trying to hide the guilt from her face even though her sister was still facing away from her. ‘How are you going to get a staff, Edalyn?’

‘The ones you get from school are just ones that someone’s made. I’ll make my own.’

The elder sister almost tutted dismissively, but then remembered all the amazing, ridiculous things Eda had achieved after she’d set her mind to them. She probably _could_ figure out how to make a staff, as well as anything else she wanted. Lilith knelt down, and the younger witchling finally dropped her pencil and looked up at her.

‘Do you have to go?’ Eda asked.

She looked so small and alone. Although the two were matched in nearly all aspects, Lilith was suddenly reminded that this was her little sister and had to beat down a welling of emotion. _To be great, you have to make sacrifices._ She brought the pouch forward in her hand.

‘Here. I hope this will make you think of me.’

Eda kept Lilith’s gaze for a moment before taking the pouch from her. She opened it and pulled out the figurine, which she looked over with interest. Her fingers ran over the wood, tracing the features of the owl’s face.

‘Thanks,’ Eda murmured without looking away from it. Lilith had seen that fixated look in her eye often over the last few weeks, and another flare of emotion started to build. She quickly stood and stepped over the sheets of paper on her way back towards the bedroom door.

As Lilith closed it behind her she glanced back at the other girl, who was still staring at the wooden owl. It almost sounded like Eda had started whispering to it.

* * *

Luz’s eyes slid slowly open. Her bedroom (if she could call the cushioned blanket that she slept on a bed) was still dark. Her ears woke up next after her eyes, but she couldn’t make out any sound which might have brought her out of her sleep. A glance at the clock on her phone showed that she had plenty of hours left before having to get up for school.

The human girl rolled over on her bed, but still felt uneasy and glanced around the room. There were no night critters scurrying across the floor right now, but even so she could feel eyes on her from somewhere. She lifted her head to look blearily up at the open window behind her, and breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Not now, Hooty,’ she mumbled, and lay back down to try and re-enter the nice dream she’d been having before it could slip away.

* * *

After school the next day, Luz made her way back to the Owl House a little more quickly than usual. She’d had a spillage in her Potions class and couldn’t wait to get changed out of her uniform. But when she went for the doorknob, it wouldn’t turn.

‘Password please,’ the circular bird face set into the door asked, its voice annoying and shrill.

‘You know it’s me, Hooty.’ Luz rolled her eyes, tugging at her uncomfortably clingy tunic.

‘Sorry Luz, I’ve been making too many exceptions.’

‘Well I never learned the password. Just let me in! I’m all sticky.’

Hooty pouted his beak. ‘I do a very important job and I deserve more respect! That’s what my brother’s been telling me.’

Luz huffed. ‘Okay, fine. But before I give you the password, can you show me that cool thing you do again?’

The owl’s eyes lit up at the promise of praise. ‘Okay!’

He opened his mouth, and the orifice widened and spread to cover the whole door frame, revealing the living room inside. Luz hopped through it just before the opening shrank back down again, and dropped her satchel next to the once-again solid door.

‘Hooty’s acting extra weird today,’ she said to Eda, who was sat on the couch flicking through channels on her crystal ball.

‘Yuh-huh…’ Eda responded distractedly. Luz kicked off her shoes and removed her cowl to hang on the coat hanger as she continued her chatter.

‘He’s trying new ways to get attention. He tried telling me his “brother” wants us to treat him better. But it’s real hard to respect someone who makes things up, that’s what my mom-‘

Luz was suddenly spun around. Eda was now right in front of her, gripping her shoulders tight.

‘What did he say?’

‘Ow! Eda you’re hurting me!’

‘ _What did he say?’_ Eda repeated, not loosening her hold.

‘He said his brother thinks he deserves more respect!’ Luz twisted herself out of the witch’s hands, and could still feel the marks where her long nails had dug through her school uniform. But she forgot about the pain the second she looked back at Eda’s face, which held an expression she’d only seen her mentor have once before; when Luz had been thrown from the bridge outside the Emperor’s castle during the fight with Lilith. The human girl’s blood ran cold when she realised what it meant.

Eda was terrified.

‘No, no, no, no…’ The grey-haired woman put a hand over her mouth and started pacing. ‘I can’t… not without my magic...’

‘What is it?’ Luz asked.

Eda didn’t answer but suddenly stopped pacing. ‘I need my staff,’ she said, and started desperately searching through the clutter of the living room. Before she had lost the ability to do magic on her own, Luz would see the witch summon whatever object she needed to her hand, sometimes from across the house. Because of this, there had been no reason for her to keep the house tidy and these days she was constantly losing things. Eda picked up one of Luz’s school books from the couch, snarled at it and rounded on the girl.

‘Why won’t you keep your _Titan-loving_ _things_ - _’_

But she stopped herself when she saw how scared her apprentice was and took a deep breath.

‘I-I’m sorry Luz,’ she said as she ran a hand over her face, still tense. ‘Have you seen Owlbert?’

‘I think he’s in the cooking pot,’ Luz said.

‘Thank you.’ Eda turned and dashed off toward the kitchen to fetch the magical staff, nearly knocking over King as he came into the room. The small demon frowned back at her as she passed before he turned to Luz.

‘What’s up with _her_?’

‘King,’ Luz asked, ‘does Hooty have a brother?’

‘No. Eda made him. Although she also made Owlbert so technically he could be his brother?’

Luz looked through the doorway that Eda had raced through. ‘Are they the only things she's made?’


	2. Chapter 2

Eda had spent the rest of the evening setting up traps around the outside of the house, and when she’d finished she went around securely locking all the doors and windows. Now she was sat on the floor in the living room clutching her staff in her hands, her eyes fixed on the front door. Luz approached and put down a plate of warmed leftovers on the floor next to her.

‘I made you dinner,’ she said.

‘Thanks,’ Eda muttered, but didn’t even look at it.

Luz knelt down next to her. ‘Eda, you’re making me really scared,' she said. 'Is there’s something going on you need to tell me about?’

The grey-haired woman glanced away from the door for the first time to look at Luz. She seemed to consider saying something, and then change her mind.

‘You should get some sleep,’ she said instead, before turning back to stare at the door. Luz watched her for a moment, before standing again. She knew it was useless to try and get a secret out of Eda that she didn’t want to tell, and headed toward the door.

‘Just…’

Luz turned back at Eda’s voice. The witch’s eyes were almost pleading.

‘…don’t open the window.’

* * *

As Luz entered her room after brushing her teeth, she glanced at the lamp that was lit in the corner and decided to leave it on tonight. After changing, she turned her makeshift bed around so that the window wasn’t behind her head before she lay down. Although she still felt tense, her eyes eventually drooped and she started to fall asleep…

_Tap-tap-tap._

Luz’s eyes bolted back open. Had that sound been real or had it been part of a dream? She felt frozen, unable to lift her head to look at the window to check.

_Tap-tap-tap._

Luz sprang to her feet and backed away against the door. The stained glass made it impossible to see what was outside, but the sharp sound had _definitely_ come from something tapping against the window pane. She squinted across the room in the lamp’s dim light.

She saw a thin talon squeeze itself through the gap between the window and the frame. It slid itself up, unhooking the latch.

Luz quickly fumbled to grab something, anything, to defend herself, but she only succeeded in knocking the lamp over and it smashed to the floor, plunging the room into darkness. Cursing to herself under her breath, Luz flailed around for her satchel, and when she found it she frantically felt inside for her drawing materials. The darkness and the shaking of her hands meant it took a couple of tries to get the glyph right, but then the paper shone and crumpled itself up into a ball of light. Luz quickly cupped it in her palms and lifted it up.

The window was ajar, and a breeze from outside made the girl shiver in her vest and shorts. A white tube now snaked in through the window, going off to the side beyond the light being cast from the orb in Luz’s hands. Holding her breath, Luz turned to follow the trail.

An eyeball hung right in front of her face at the end of the tube.

Luz couldn’t have let her breath go if she’d tried. The eyeball blinked, looking her over. And then the whole tube was quickly slurped back across the room and out of the window, the motion making it snap shut again and the latch fall back into place with a clatter.

Luz stayed still for a few seconds. Then she very slowly crouched down, gathered up her bedding and backed out through the door, not extinguishing her light until she was in the safely well-lit hallway.

As she entered the living room again, Eda turned from where she was still sat and read the look on Luz’s face, tensing with realisation.

‘He’s here,’ she whispered.

‘Who’s here?’ Luz asked.

A booming thud came from the roof; a heavy weight had landed on it.

Eda jumped up and raised her staff defensively, staring at the ceiling. The sound of giant feet began to move across the roof, and both witch and apprentice followed the source of the sound with their eyes. There was a scraping noise and a couple of tiles smashed to the ground outside the door, making Luz drop her bedding with a short shriek. Eda quickly clamped her hand over the human’s mouth.

But the footsteps had already stopped.

Luz tried to quieten the heavy, frantic breaths that were coming in and out of her nose above Eda’s hand. Neither of them moved a muscle. And then the sound of the giant feet hitting the ground came from outside.

‘Oh, hey big bro!’ Hooty’s shrill voice sounded out, muffled through the door. ‘Nice of you to drop by, we can have a nice long-’

Then he squawked in fright, and there was a horrific scratching, squealing noise from the door. Luz dived behind Eda, and the lights inside the house all faded out at once as the noise suddenly stopped. Eda lifted the staff up towards the door, a point of light appearing at its end.

There was a circular hole in the top of the door where Hooty’s wings and tail normally were. He was gone.

Eda crept forward towards the door to peek through the hole. Then she started to back away, and when she’d unblocked Luz’s view the girl could see why.

An eye was looking in at them, white with a pinprick iris. It stared straight at Eda, and then was pulled back.

‘I heard the Owl Lady had lost her magic,’ a new voice came from outside.

Through the gloom, Luz could make out a shadow passing back and forth over the hole in the door, and heard the pad of great feet pacing outside. She looked up at Eda’s face; the witch seemed paralysed, her only movement the trembling of her hands on her staff, eyes wide and unblinking, staring forward as if the creature outside was in the room right in front of her.

‘You’ve gotten yourself a new little family, Eda,’ the voice observed, ‘whereas you leave your own creations out in the cold, alone, after gifting them with a mind of their own. No wonder your house demon has gone insane.’

‘What did you do with Hooty?’ Luz called out, summoning her courage.

‘He’s with me now,’ the voice replied with a tone that made the human’s stomach churn. She looked back up at her mentor, who still wasn’t moving.

‘Eda!’ Luz hissed, tugging at her arm. The witch finally blinked and looked down, seemingly remembering that the girl was there. She kept her gaze for a moment, the moonlight from the hole in the door casting shadows on her features. Then she faced the door again, this time gripping her staff with purpose.

‘Luz, the first chance you get, you _run,_ ’ she instructed.

‘Eda, no!’

‘ _This is not a discussion_!’ the witch spat back at her, making Luz step back in surprise. Eda’s expression softened a little, but was still stern. ‘You can’t help me this time, kid. Not with him.’

The pale woman swallowed and took a step forward towards the door.

‘Let Hooty go,’ Eda ordered, her voice only breaking slightly.

‘Why, so you can keep him enslaved until you don’t need him anymore?’ the pacing shadow retorted. ‘Have you told your new pets what you do with them when they start to bore you?’

‘I didn’t get bored of you, Screech. I realised what you were.’

The shadow sprang forward bringing its eye to the hole again, glaring in. ‘ _I was the only one who was there for you_!’ it snarled. ‘When your friends left you and your family pushed you away, only _I_ was there to take on your pain!’

‘You were keeping me in a dark place.’ Eda was now sounding more like her defiant self, managing to hide the tremble in her voice.

The eye pulled back and the pacing continued. ‘And what did you do when you decided you were finished with me?’ The shadow’s breaths were getting quicker as it became more agitated. ‘You _abandoned_ me. Just like the people who abandoned _you_ when they started thinking you were a monster. Maybe they were right.’

Eda’s eyes widened again. Luz had never seen the rebellious woman take someone else’s opinion of her seriously before.

‘But I can see I’m not welcome,’ the voice continued in something between a purr and a growl. ‘I’ll go, and you’ll never hear from me again. I just want one thing first.’

Luz could hear Eda swallow again before speaking. ‘What?’ she asked.

The shadow stopped its pacing. ‘Your staff.’

Eda glanced down at the length of wood in her hands, the palisman at the top currently inanimate. ‘You’re not taking Owlbert.’

‘I won’t hurt him. He’ll be far better treated with me. Not reduced to a tool, or used to stir your dinner. But of course, why would you set him free when he’s now your only source of power?’

Eda’s already pale fingers were now bone-white as she clutched her staff tight.

‘I’ll give you some time to consider,’ the shadow said. ‘And if you don’t give him up… well,’ Luz could see it crouch down, as if to pounce. ‘We’ll have to continue our old game.’

It suddenly shot upwards with a great rushing sound. Luz ran to the door, Eda grabbing after her.

‘Luz, wait!’ she hissed, but the human was already peering through the hole, stretched up on her tiptoes. She could see a huge beast flying away in the sky, two massive wings spread out on either side.

Luz turned back. ‘Eda, what the _hell_ is going on?’

The witch looked limp, like a puppet whose strings had been left to dangle loose. She took in a long, deep breath, and waved the end of her staff over the fireplace. Flames came back to life over the logs and a warm glow started to illuminate the room again. Eda went over to the couch and sat down heavily. She tickled a finger under the beak of the small owl figure on top of the staff, and it came to life, hopping off of the length of wood and onto the back of her hand.

‘You know I made Owlbert and Hooty?’ she asked.

‘Yeah?’

‘Well, before them there were other… attempts. And they didn’t go so great.’

Luz came over to sit on the couch too. ‘Is that what that thing was?’

Eda nodded. She lightly brushed her fingers over Owlbert’s feathery head, and his eyes squinted in satisfaction.

‘I made Screech when I was young and angry,’ she continued. ‘I was still getting used to the curse, and a lot of those feelings went into him.’

Luz felt like she should be comforting the woman somehow, but she didn’t know how to do that for someone who was her teacher. Eda continued to brush and tickle Owlbert, and seemed to calm a little.

‘I knew he’d come back one day,’ Eda murmured. ‘I just thought… I thought I’d be ready by now.’

* * *

This time when Luz’s eyes opened it was daylight. She suddenly jerked upright on the couch as the previous night’s events came back to her and yelped when she felt Eda next to her, who gave a similar cry of fright as she was woken. As they both recovered from the scare, Eda sat up too. She pushed Luz’s bedding off her and put her hand to her brow with a long sigh. Cheerful humming came from the stairs and King trotted in.

‘Morning, you two!’ he called.

Luz stared at him incredulously through heavily shadowed eyes. ‘King, didn’t you hear anything last night?’

‘Nope! Someone slept like a baby last night, and the baby was me!’ He stood in front of Luz, his arms outstretched, but dropped them and frowned when the girl didn’t react. ‘Hey, why aren’t you going all goo-goo? Come on, that was embarrassing for me. Make with the tummy rubs.’ He slapped the back of one paw on the palm of the other demandingly, but Luz was looking at Eda.

‘I won’t go into school,’ she promised.

‘No, you should go,’ Eda shook her head. ‘I won’t stay in today anyway.’

King had turned away from them once he’d realised he wasn’t going to get any attention, and started to shiver.

‘Gee, sure is breezy in here.’ He glanced around to try and find the source of the chill, and paused when his eyes fell on the door. ‘Um, question I should never have to ask, but… where’s Hooty?’

The three of them stared out through the empty hole in the door.


	3. Chapter 3

When Luz got home from school that afternoon, Eda was stood waiting outside the Owl House. She was impatiently tapping her foot on the ground, but when the human reached her she just nodded.

‘Okay, inside,’ the witch instructed. When Luz was through the front door, Eda spun her arms in a wide circle in front of her, and a magical barrier formed around the house. Luz had seen her make a similar one to keep out the boiling rain, but this one looked much more solid. The girl sniffed at the sickly-sweet aroma in the air and looked round at the cauldron sat on the coffee table, which itself was littered with freshly picked ingredients from the forest.

‘It’s a sensory elixir,’ Eda answered Luz’s question before she’d asked it as she came back in the house and closed the door behind her. ‘Increases hearing, sight, smell, makes you your own watchdog.’ The grey-haired woman went over to the cauldron and dipped one of the mugs that was sat on the table into the yellow brew. After she’d taken a gulp, her pupils dilated, and her pointed ears twitched at small sounds inaudible to Luz. ‘I’m gonna see him coming this time.’

The human girl glanced at the array of axes and swords that had been arranged in a corner. ‘Is that barrier gonna stop him?’ she asked.

Eda was silent, and set her eyes on the wood that now boarded up the hole in the door. She didn’t seem to have an answer.

‘Look, kid,’ she began. ‘You’ve proven yourself in a fight, but this is for me to face. You should go stay with one of your-‘

But she stopped at the sound of Luz’s refreshed gasp and looked over at the girl, who was pulling away the cauldron’s ladle from her mouth. She stumbled back a little as the potion took effect.

‘Whoa,’ Luz breathed as she looked around, and wrinkled her nose. ‘This place is _filthy_.’

Eda watched her go over to the pile of weapons and pick out a sword, before heading back to sit on the couch.

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ the human declared conclusively.

They picked at food as the evening dragged on, and shifted restlessly on the couch while King paced in front of the door. Eda had her staff in her lap, tense, ready to spring forward at any moment. But no threatening sounds or smells came near the house, and when there were only a few hours left until dawn Eda had suggested they get some rest. Luz had carried her bedding into Eda’s nest and curled up next to her. The Owl Lady hadn’t challenged her.

Each night that week passed the same way. Luz suggested that they sleep in shifts, but Eda would never give up the watch and simply went on staring at the door. When Luz did try to sleep, the lingering effects of the potion they’d both been taking kept making her hear the scuttling of insects all about the house, keeping her awake. She nodded off in class at one point and woke with a scream that had given her a scolding from the teacher. But there was still no sign of Screech.

Eda had been mixing the sensory elixir with the one that kept her curse at bay, and the combination had been making her hands shake. One evening, she dropped the mug she’d been refilling from the cauldron, and its contents spilled onto the carpet. She roared with frustration, picked up the mug and threw it hard against the wall where it smashed to pieces.

‘This is getting stupid,’ Eda said. I’m going out tomorrow and I’m gonna hunt him down.’

‘Okay,’ Luz said, resisting the urge to rub her eyes. ‘I’ll draw up some glyphs to take with us.’

Eda shook her head. ‘No. I’m going alone.’

‘Eda, I told you, I’m not letting you-‘

‘Stop trying to help me!’ Eda suddenly snapped. ‘The reason Screech is even around is because I was too weak to face my problems on my own!’

Luz saw the fury in Eda’s exhausted eyes, and could tell it wasn’t directed at her.

‘You were in pain,’ the girl said. ‘You shouldn’t have had to deal with the curse by yourself.’

Eda gave a cold, heartless laugh. ‘You goody-goody humans. You still have no idea what this place is really like. If you hadn’t run into me when you arrived, you would have been gobbled up by some other demon long ago.’

The patronising tone set Luz’s frayed nerves alight with a surge of anger, and she stood up from the couch. ‘Well I wouldn’t be _stuck_ here if you hadn’t been getting your crappy merchandise from portals that any kid could wander through!’

‘You got yourself stuck here!’

‘BECAUSE I WAS SAVING _YOU!_ ’

‘I DON’T NEED-’

They suddenly stopped their shouting match and listened for the noise they’d both heard from outside. The crash sounded again, and they heard a vibration run through the whole of the magical barrier that surrounded the house.

Something huge was charging into it.

King was growling at the door. Eda raised the staff, and Luz her sword. The booming crash came once more, and then there was a horrific wailing and a magical buzz; the barrier’s assailant seemed to be crushing themselves against it, forcing their way through. There was a mighty crack, followed by silence as the barrier outside disappeared.

The door handle started to turn.

Eda took a step back as it opened. The creature outside looked far too big for the door, but it poked its head and front feet through, and its muscular shoulders seemed to melt inward until they were squeezed inside, followed by an equally massive torso, wings, and hind legs, all contracting as they slid through the door and expanding again once they had passed through.

Screech looked _wrong_. He was a dark parody of Eda’s cursed form, and three times as large. Where the owl beast was animalistic, he was unnatural and monstrous, and charred black all over except for his two front legs which were bone-white. They ended in huge, unnervingly human hands which lay flat on the floor, short fingernails at the end of each digit instead of claws. His back legs extended continuously into sharp talons with no separating mark of flesh or fur. Feathers covered his folded wings, but the overall shape of them was so straight they seemed almost metallic. None of this distracted from the face.

It was obvious why Hooty had referred to Screech as his brother; his face was perfectly circular and seemed small compared to the rest of him, sticking out high in a bed of black fur. The eyes dangled loosely on short, white tubes above a long, sharp beak.

‘Hello again, Eda,’ Screech said.

Eda couldn’t move, frozen again by the sight of the childhood nightmare she'd made for herself. She couldn’t even feel the staff in her hands, though she knew she was gripping it. She heard Luz’s voice, as if from a distance.

‘Let Hooty go, and leave,’ the girl was saying. King had scrambled up onto the human’s shoulder protectively, ready to pounce forward.

Screech grinned through his beak, and started to pace around them on all fours. His gait was stumbling, as if walking backwards, but his immense body somehow melded around the furniture of the room without disturbing it.

‘I won’t be leaving either of my siblings here tonight.’ Eda heard the voice coming from behind her, the wall of fur that made up his hindquarters still passing in front of her face.

‘We’re not going to let you take Owlbert!’ Luz was turning to follow Screech’s face, her sword pointed toward him, even as Eda remained still.

‘Believe me, it would be a kinder fate for him,’ Screech growled. ‘Kinder than leaving him with _this_ one.’

‘Eda loves him! She loves all of us!’

‘Is that what you think?’ Screech had now come full circle around them, his face staring down from above. ‘Do you want to tell her how you finally got rid of me, Eda?’

The witch couldn’t bring herself to look into his eyes. When no response came, Screech turned to the side and started unfurling one of his wings.

‘She trapped me, tied me up in the middle of a thicket. And then she _burned_ it.’

Eda screwed her eyes shut as Screech lifted his wing, not wanting to see the sight underneath. But she heard Luz’s gasp of shock at the swathes of bald, marred flesh. The witch opened her eyes and saw her two friends staring at her.

‘Eda…?’ King asked, a wary, questioning look on his face.

‘I-I was scared,’ Eda stammered. ‘I was young. I didn’t… I didn’t know what to do…’

Screech folded his wing back against himself and continued to pace around them.

‘Oh, it was just another part of our game,’ he said. ‘But when she realised it wasn’t going to kill me, she told me to never come near her again or she’d finish the job. But you _can’t_ now, can you Eda?”

The fingers of one of Screech’s giant hands suddenly elongated and stretched across the room, whipping forward to twirl themselves around Eda’s staff. She gripped each end and pulled back, straining against the tubes that were retracting into the hand. She felt her heels drag against the carpet, and slid her finger up to the staff’s palisman, twisting it out of its interlock.

Screech pulled the rest of the staff out of Eda’s hands as she let it go, and threw it aside with a snarl. Eda quickly tossed Owlbert to Luz, who dropped her sword and caught him. The small owl blinked awake in the human’s hands, and she clutched him to her chest. Eda stepped between Screech and her apprentice, holding her arms out wide protectively. Screech glared at her, but then started to chuckle.

“The most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles,' he snarled as he reared up. 'Where’s all that power NOW?’

The muscles and sinews that were rippling beneath his fur started to separate and uncoil. His head stretched out on a long neck, and the fingers and talons stretched too, creaking like rubbery wood. Each point on his wings did the same, until all that was left of his form was a mass of writhing, hose-like tubes and veins that spread across the room. The noise of all the slithering around the room came together in an abrasive cacophony.

Luz jumped up on the couch as one of the tendrils started to slither around her ankle. King batted away another that was creeping around his neck, but then a cluster of them wrapped around the human’s torso, pinning her arms to her sides. Another tendril grabbed King by the waist, and they were both lifted off the couch and suspended in the air.

Screech’s face, still intact at the end of his winding neck, lowered down in front of Eda’s, his eyes hanging limply from their sockets.

‘THIS IS WHAT YOU MADE ME TO BE!’ he bellowed at her. ‘ALL YOUR SUFFERING AND RAGE INCARNATE, NEVER ABLE TO FEEL ANYTHING ELSE! BUT YOU CAN’T BURN YOUR PAIN AWAY!’

He inhaled deeply, the air flowing back along his neck and all the way down the tubes of his body. And then he screamed.

Eda fell to her knees, her hands on her ears, desperately trying to block out the sound of her own anguish reflected back at her. Screech screamed and screamed and screamed without respite. Then his face stretched into tendrils too, the eyes and beak extending out to join the twisting knot that now filled the room. But the screaming still continued.

‘Eda!’

The witch heard the voice cut through the echoing shriek, but clenched her eyes shut, her hands still pressed against her ears. It was taking everything she had to withstand the horrific noise, which was cutting through to her brittle core.

‘Eda, help me!’

The mental image of her apprentice in danger was drowned out by all the dark thoughts and feelings that Eda had kept suppressed for years, rushing back to the surface and overwhelming her. She was powerless to help anyone now.

But then her eyes opened wide in sudden realisation; the voice had been a girl’s. But it hadn’t been Luz.

She looked around, and saw a central tangle of coils in the space where Screech had originally been stood. An impossible face under a mane of orange hair was looking out of the core, a hand outstretched.

‘Help me, Eda!’ her own teenage self called out.

The grey-haired woman stared. And then she hurried toward the cluster. A band of tubes pushed back against her, but she forced her way forward step by step, stretching a hand towards the one reaching for her, inching toward it. She managed to grab the girl’s hand, tangible and real, and looked into her terrified eyes.

‘Please, help me!’ the teenaged Eda cried. And then she was yanked out of the older woman’s grip and back into the swirling vortex of tendrils.

Eda cried out in terror at the sight and desperately groped at the air where the hand had been. Her eyes darted around the room until she saw the sword that Luz had dropped, and she raced over to it, stumbling over more tendrils. One wrapped itself around her ankle and she toppled forward, hitting the floor. Eda reached her hand out and grabbed the hilt of the sword where it lay before rolling over onto her back. A writhing, hissing clump was diving down towards her, and the witch swung the sword, slicing through them.

An agonised howl sounded about the room. The tubes all started to retract, and Screech reformed where he’d been stood, gasping with pain. He locked his dangling eyes on the grey-haired woman and leapt at her with a roar. Eda charged forward too, but when she reached him she dropped the sword and opened her arms wide, wrapping them around his fur. Screech writhed in her grasp and thrashed out, his fingernails and talons making red gashes through Eda’s dress, but she didn’t let go.

‘ _I’m sorry_ …’ she sobbed. _‘I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry_ …’

Her captive continued to lash wildly, shrieking with all the pent-up torment he had been created from. Eda’s fingers gripped tight into Screech’s coat as his hands scrabbled to pull her away.

‘Eda!’

This time it had been Luz calling out to her; Eda turned her head and saw the human holding the staff, Owlbert now re-attached to its top. The girl threw it across the room, and Eda reached out and caught it. She slammed its base into the ground in front of Screech, and a great white flash erupted out from the staff over the room.

* * *

Luz blinked as the spots in front of her eyes subsided and the living room came back into focus. King was getting to his feet on the floor next to her, shaking his head, a little dazed. Screech had disappeared.

Eda was knelt on the floor, blood seeping from the cuts in her back, hugging something to her chest. She stretched out her arms as Luz approached, revealing the object she’d been holding; it was a live owl, covered in a golden coat of feathers. It blinked as it awoke, and gave an insentient hoot. Eda stroked her hand over its plumage.

Then a familiarly shrill groan sounded out from beneath a pile of clutter. Eda and Luz glanced at each other, and the witch passed Screech’s new form to the human before going over to the pile. She cleared away the debris that was covering the whimpering voice, and recoiled a little when she’d moved the final layer. Luz started to walk over, but Eda held out a hand to stop her.

‘No, don’t look,’ she said, her eyes distressed. ‘It’s okay, I can fix him.’

Luz stayed where she was as Eda waved her staff over the spot Hooty’s voice was sounding from, muttering an incantation. King trotted over to the witch’s side and watched her work, putting his paw on her arm. The human looked down at the bird in her arms, who gazed placidly back up at her.

It took a little time before Eda had finished, and then she carried the bundle in her arms back to the door, removing the board from the hole and muttering more arcane speech as she reattached Hooty. When she was done, she leant a hand against the door for a moment, exhausted, before turning and coming back to Luz. The human handed over Screech without a word, and they went outside.

Eda continued walking forward while Luz stayed by the door. The human smiled at the sight of Hooty back where he belonged, and raised a hand to stroke his face.

‘You okay, buddy?’ she asked.

‘Yeah,’ he replied woozily. ‘Guess family reunions aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.’

Luz glanced down at King, whose skull-face was looking out at Eda. She followed his gaze and they both went over to the witch. Screech was perched on her outstretched forearm, looking quizzically back at her. Eda stroked her other hand over his head.

‘It’s okay,’ she murmured. The owl blinked at her, and then turned to look out into the night before spreading its wings and launching itself into the air, flapping away into the darkness.

Luz looked up at her mentor’s face; tears were silently streaming down her pale cheeks. The human took Eda’s hand in her own, and King reached up and took the witch’s other in his paw. They stood together under the moon, watching the owl fly away.

* * *

Lilith rubbed her eyes with her fingers as she approached the front door of the small apartment she had rented above one of the shops in the Bonesborough market square. She wasn’t exactly proud of having gone from the head of the Emperor’s coven to disgraced and unemployed, and had kept her cowl pulled fully over her head whenever she’d needed to venture out for food and other amenities, so she had no idea who could be calling on her. But her eyes widened in surprise when she opened the door and saw her sister.

‘Edalyn!’ she breathed.

‘Hi Lily,’ Eda replied. ‘Can I come in?’

Lilith nodded and stepped aside, allowing the other woman to enter the apartment. She blushed a little as Eda glanced around at the untidy living room and the unwashed dishes in the open-plan kitchen. But the other Clawthorne sister didn’t even make a mocking quip; she seemed to have something else on her mind.

‘Screech came back,’ Eda said.

‘Oh.’ Lilith put her hand to her mouth. ‘Do you need-’

But Eda was shaking her head. ‘He’s gone now, forever. But…’ She paused and went over to sit on the couch. ‘…I think I understand now, why you didn’t want to face your mistake.’

Lilith sat down next to her, moving some laundry aside to make space. ‘Does that mean you forgive me?’ she asked, but then lowered her gaze when Eda grimaced. ‘No, of course not. I’m sorry.’

Eda leant forward, resting her elbows on her knees. ‘I don’t know if I forgive you,’ she said, ‘but I think I’m ready to talk.’

The two sisters sat together, not meeting each other’s eyes.


End file.
